Quote: @MaroonBells said:
@ Hawkvike25 said:
Not a comment to defend the offense, but Adam Patrick is such an Anti-Kirk douche. The defensive stat says we were the worst defensive team in that situation OF ALL TIME. His response is dragging in the offense, lolz dude is a clown
When you have the worst defensive performance in NFL history in a particular situation....AND your otherwise top 10-ish offense finishes 29th in that very same situation? It's not hard to figure out where the problem lies.
Well what’s funny is how us fans on this board complained about the playcalling under 2 min with the ball. We also complained about the poor usage of timeouts and clock management. Adam doesnt mention any of that because he hates Kirk with a passion and uses any opportunity he can to bash him, even if it means ignoring the issues I just mentioned. I hate “fans” like him.
Sorry to get on my soapbox on Masters Sunday
Quote: @Kentis said:
Wow what a coincidence, I think I drank 686 beers during opponent drives in the final 4 minutes before halftime or the end of the game…  B) :p
Slacker.
No team in recent memory has struggled more in the final minutes of each half than the Minnesota Vikings during the 2021 season.
Everyone is fully aware of how much the Minnesota Vikings struggled during the final minutes of each half in the majority of their matchups last season.
But a stat was recently brought to light that shows the Vikings‘ end-of-half struggles were not only the worst in the NFL during the 2021 campaign, but they were also among the worst that the league has seen in the last two decades.
Quote:the Vikings allowed TDs on 32.4% of opponent drives in the final 4 minutes before halftime or the end of the game
worst in the NFL
NFL average was 12%
#31 was 20.6%
not only did they rank #32 in the NFL last season…
they ranked #686 of 686 teams since at least 2000
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) April 9, 2022
Thanks to Warren Sharp of NBC Sports and The Ringer, we now know that Minnesota’s difficulties to prevent their opponents from finding the end zone at the end of the second and fourth quarters last season were officially the worst in the NFL since 2000.
Why were the Minnesota Vikings so bad at the end of each half last season?While this stat reveals the struggles of the Vikings’ defense at the end of games last season, the offense shouldn’t get a pass in these situations either.
In the final four minutes of the second and fourth quarters in 2021, Minnesota’s offense only scored a touchdown on five percent of their drives. This was the third-worst touchdown percentage in these situations in the NFL last season.
So the Vikings not only had a hard time at keeping their opponents out the end zone at the end of each half in 2021, but their offense rarely found the end zone in these end-of-half situations as well.
It’s hard to blame all of this on anything specific as it’s just a mixture of a bunch of things. Bad coaching, bad execution by the players on the field, lack of talent on the roster, and inexperience, among other things.
For the 2022 season, Minnesota is hoping that new head coach Kevin O’Connell can avoid some of the end-of-half struggles the team experienced in 2021. Will O’Connell’s arrival make a big enough impact in these situations or will we find out that these difficulties are more player-related?
" It’s hard to blame all of this on anything specific as it’s just a mixture of a bunch of things. Bad coaching, bad execution by the players on the field, lack of talent on the roster, and inexperience, among other things.For the 2022 season, Minnesota is hoping that new head coach Kevin O’Connell can avoid some of the end-of-half struggles the team experienced in 2021. Will O’Connell’s arrival make a big enough impact in these situations or will we find out that these difficulties are more player-related? "
That's pretty much it. Yes there was bad coaching, play calling, and clock management. But the team wasn't very good. It had some major weaknesses. There are several good players, but not enough to overcome weaknesses.
Kwesi and O'Connell have done a fair job of taking care of some of those weaknesses. Hopefully they will draft the right players to handle the rest.
Better player acquisition and better coaching is bound to make them better this year than last.
Quote: @StickyBun said:
@ Kentis said:
Wow what a coincidence, I think I drank 686 beers during opponent drives in the final 4 minutes before halftime or the end of the game… B) :p
Slacker.
![[Image: jx6l7o175seg.jpeg]](https://vikefans.com/vfforums/uploads/editor/xe/jx6l7o175seg.jpeg)
Quote: @jargomcfargo said:
" It’s hard to blame all of this on anything specific as it’s just a mixture of a bunch of things. Bad coaching, bad execution by the players on the field, lack of talent on the roster, and inexperience, among other things.For the 2022 season, Minnesota is hoping that new head coach Kevin O’Connell can avoid some of the end-of-half struggles the team experienced in 2021. Will O’Connell’s arrival make a big enough impact in these situations or will we find out that these difficulties are more player-related? "
That's pretty much it. Yes there was bad coaching, play calling, and clock management. But the team wasn't very good. It had some major weaknesses. There are several good players, but not enough to overcome weaknesses.
Kwesi and O'Connell have done a fair job of taking care of some of those weaknesses. Hopefully they will draft the right players to handle the rest.
Better player acquisition and better coaching is bound to make them better this year than last.
The bad coaching, play calling and clock management have been pretty evident for at least the last 3 years of Zimmer's reign. I find it ironic that recent defenders of Zimmer are all now dumping on him like something new was revealed to them when all the evidence was pretty clear and discussed endlessly on here.
Zimmer/Spelly built a highly competitive team but that window closed years ago.
No one is happier that we have a new coach, than I, but to think we can just flip a switch with a rookie coach who never called plays is pretty naive especially with our recent history of OC play callers. I guess fans just want to "hope" and being realistic takes away some of the excitement of thinking we are a SB contending team. There are 4 phases of football - Coaching, Offense, Defense, and ST's.
Coaching - brand spanking new = a lot of rookie mistakes
Offense - we have 1 new starter at RG already so more then solid coming off a top half overall Offense (14th in Pts per game). On paper, we have the skill players to be a Top 5 Offense but yet we haven't been near the Top 5 in a very long time. Let's hope for Top 10 with an offensive minded HC and consistency in personnel. I think Top 10 is realistic Top 5 would be Hope 
Defense - we already have 6 new starters from last year even before the draft which is a good thing but that is a lot of new starters! We are switching to a 3-4 which will be brand new to most, not all, of our current starting lineup. We will all just assume that Hunter will be fine, maybe even better, in a 3-4. Probably our best defender the last few years has been Kendricks - I guess we just assume that He and Harry will be fine in a new system when being asked to do things 100% different from Zimmer's schemes.
ST - I seems like we have finally solved our K and P issues that have plagued our teams forever. Our KO return game (Kene) seems to be in good hands but we could use some better numbers in our punt return and coverages.
Lastly, new GM in first offseason/draft - He will have a nice honeymoon for this year because his decisions do not have immediate results in most cases. It takes a full year to see if the GM made good decisions unlike our rookie HC - KOC.
When I look at all the BS I just posted it seems to me that we are going to rely on our Offense to win us games, at least in the early going, until our HC/Defense can get up to speed which I think will take awhile. Recent Viking football has not been very good when we needed to rely on our offense to carry the team to victory.....lets "Hope" that changes
Well said. In the past 13 years only 28.6% of first year head coaches have led their teams to the playoffs. Which is actually better than I thought it would be; but still unlikely. Even with a great draft the Vikings will still be threadbare at depth in a number of positions. And you can't account for injuries. So it takes a lot of hope.
But I don't expect a Lombardi out of the gate. I do expect improvement and trending in a positive direction by the end of the season. That would foster hope based on more than thin air.
As for dumping on Zimmer. I'm not that guy. I just thank him for what he gave and wish him good health and luck in the future.
Zimmer's wheels started falling off in 2019. There were two games in particular, a Packer game in which the cheese went up 21-0 early and a Bronco game, which was very similar. These games, in addition to the NFCC game in Philly, were examples of terrible game prep. Vikings just weren't ready.
They adjusted, shutting down the Packers after that scoring burst and actually coming back to win the Denver game. Zimmer always adjusted well. If he could just have his team more ready at the kickoff.
I never saw time management or in-game calls as a huge problem. All coaches are flawed and make bad decisions. This is just one of those things like passing short of the sticks, that fans of every team think their team is the only one doing it.
And to me, Zimmer's assets as a defensive coach outweighed his poor game prep. Until it didn't, which happened last year. 2020 was an outlier because of all the injuries, but last year was the first year his defensive scheme just seemed outdated. And then something new was added to the liability column: situational football incompetence. I think this, more than anything else, led to his firing.
Quote: @MaroonBells said:
Zimmer's wheels started falling off in 2019. There were two games in particular, a Packer game in which the cheese went up 21-0 early and a Bronco game, which was very similar. These games, in addition to the NFCC game in Philly, were examples of terrible game prep. Vikings just weren't ready.
They adjusted, shutting down the Packers after that scoring burst and actually coming back to win the Denver game. Zimmer always adjusted well. If he could just have his team more ready at the kickoff.
I never saw time management or in-game calls as a huge problem. All coaches are flawed and make bad decisions. This is just one of those things like passing short of the sticks, that fans of every team think their team is the only one doing it.
And to me, Zimmer's assets as a defensive coach outweighed his poor game prep. Until it didn't, which happened last year. 2020 was an outlier because of all the injuries, but last year was the first year his defensive scheme just seemed outdated. And then something new was added to the liability column: situational football incompetence. I think this, more than anything else, led to his firing.
Last year was when Zim lost me, mostly due to what you just so eloquently stated, but it also appeared that there was a pretty big disconnect between him and the team (and come to find out the FO as well).
Pretty excited for what is a new breath of fresh air throughout the organization.
Quote: @MaroonBells said:
Zimmer's wheels started falling off in 2019. There were two games in particular, a Packer game in which the cheese went up 21-0 early and a Bronco game, which was very similar. These games, in addition to the NFCC game in Philly, were examples of terrible game prep. Vikings just weren't ready.
They adjusted, shutting down the Packers after that scoring burst and actually coming back to win the Denver game. Zimmer always adjusted well. If he could just have his team more ready at the kickoff.
I never saw time management or in-game calls as a huge problem. All coaches are flawed and make bad decisions. This is just one of those things like passing short of the sticks, that fans of every team think their team is the only one doing it.
And to me, Zimmer's assets as a defensive coach outweighed his poor game prep. Until it didn't, which happened last year. 2020 was an outlier because of all the injuries, but last year was the first year his defensive scheme just seemed outdated. And then something new was added to the liability column: situational football incompetence. I think this, more than anything else, led to his firing.
This is a great assessment of the football acumen part of things. I will add a layer to this - I was surprised at how poor the work environment and culture were @ Eagan. In spite of saying the last 3 seasons, things cant be happy out there.
Thats on RS and Zimmer both.
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